Keto White Chicken Chili

I'm a huge fan of the Keto diet. This is not a secret.

I have a very hard time finding Keto food that I like, so I usually make the same thing every day. I do this for ease as well. My family doesn't eat Keto, so I always have to make two meals. (ugh)

WELL...I found a Keto meal that everyone loves. I'm not kidding, this is delicious. I don't have any pictures to share because my whole family ate it very quickly!

I'll share the recipe below with general macros. Please realize that not all products are created equal, and different parts of the chicken will have different amounts of fat. (Also, did you know that Philly Cream Cheese has less carbs than the generic brand?!?)

Keto White Chicken Chili

Makes four servings

1 lb chicken
1.5 cups chicken broth (We use Sam's Choice Organic Vegetable Broth)
2 garlic cloves finely minced
1 4.5 oz can chopped green chiles
1 diced jalapeno
1 diced green pepper
1/4 cup diced onion
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 oz cream cheese
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne


Season chicken in a large pot with oregano, cayenne, salt and pepper. Sear both sides over medium heat until golden.

Add broth, cover and cook chicken for 15-20 minutes or until fully cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, melt the butter. Add chiles, diced jalapeño, green pepper and onion to a skillet and saute until veggies soften. Add minced garlic and saute an additional 30 seconds. Turn off heat.

** This step is not necessary, but this gets my veggie hating son to eat veggies* Puree vegetables with a small amount of broth.

Once chicken is cooked, shred and add back to broth. Add sautéed veggies OR pureed veggies and simmer for 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, soften the cream cheese in a microwave until you can stir it, mix with heavy whipping cream.

Stirring quickly, add cheese to soup.

Simmer and additional 15 minutes.

Top with whatever works for you. The boys did hot sauce and tortillas. I did cheese and avocado. :) I prefer more healthy fats in my food.

Serving size 1 cup
4 net carbs
481 Calories
30 g fat
1 g fiber
39 g protein

Bacon Wrapped Sriracha Chicken

Ok, so the picture for this chicken does not do this justice. Logan has to bring a lunch to school every day, so it makes lunch packing for me tricky...I pack him the same food for the week and then switch it up the next week.

He gets A LOT of shredded meat with tortilla chips. I decided to try something new. Well, not really. I bought a whole chicken and I was going to put it in the crockpot and make it shredded BBQ chicken. (Poor kid)

I woke up Sunday morning with a need to cook. Perhaps it was the blue apron box that got delivered the day before, perhaps it was the fact that I had the weekend off. We'll never know.

What I did was nothing short of amazing, I'm not going to lie.

I took that chicken and boned it like a pro. Then I marinated it in 1 cup canola oil, 4T Sriracha and 4T  lime juice. After that chicken sat in the fridge for about an hour, I cut that chicken in half (between the breasts) and rolled each half up. Then I wrapped the chicken in bacon, using a beautiful criss-cross pattern. I poured more of the Sriracha sauce over the top and then smushed some brown sugar on top.

Then it got baked at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the end I broiled it, and then flipped it and broiled again until that bacon was crispy.

The reason the picture looks so icky is because I wasn't sure if it would be good...but Logan said it was fantastic.

That is a picture of the cold chicken, if you wanted to serve it hot I would pour some of the hot chicken juice over the chicken and top it with a little more Sriracha.

My very picky 13 year old said it was super good after being rewarmed in the microwave, so it has to be delicious!

If you don't know how to bone a chicken, it's not that hard. Google it, for real. You'll find plenty of videos. Just make sure that you don't cut the skin and you'll be AALLLLL GOOOD. :)

Asian Pork Lettuce Cups

I realize it has been a long time since I posted, and I am going to try to be better! There has been a lot more high heels in my life lately...so no time for fun blogging!

I made this awesome recipe a few months ago, and then again the other day. It was still good. :) 

I am sure you know that we raised some pigs. So my freezer is full of delicious, organic, heritage breed pork. You have to get creative when you have that much pork in the freezer. 

I'm not going to lie, I hated the lettuce cups. I have some variations that we have tried. I made fried rice and just stirred the pork into it (add some charred pineapple), and that was good! I also made Ramen noodles and put the pork on top...this was also delicious. 

I have an obsession with vegetables. They're just so delicious. You don't have to add any of the things I have here, it is just how I like to roll. I added pickled radish to the lettuce cups, here I added beans and carrots. 

The recipe isn't that difficult, but it does require some stuff you may not have around the house (sorry, Michelle...). THIS RECIPE DOES CONTAIN PEANUT BUTTER! But it isn't required. I made this half with and half without because Logan can't eat peanut butter. I substituted a dab of honey in his pan. (I also left out the veggies because he has no class.) I don't think I would make the pork without the honey if you wanted to go nut free. The sugar in the honey (and peanut butter) gives the pork a sticky deliciousness.

Oh! This also has a killer dipping sauce. Like if you're cool enough to actually use the lettuce cups. We just pour it over everything. Sidebar: this recipe uses a crap ton of soy sauce. If you have a sodium issue, get the low sodium. If you don't raise your own meat, get the low sodium. This does not need any added salt, and that's saying something. I love salt. 

You will need:

Filling:

2 lb. lean ground pork

1 1/2 cups diced onion

1/2 tsp. coarse ground pepper

2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. grated fresh ginger root

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp. rice vinegar (seasoned is good)

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

2 Tbsp. peanut butter (or a dollop of honey)

2 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. Sriracha or gochujang (We like it spicy! I always add more)

1/2 cup chopped green onion tops

1 (8 oz) can sliced water chestnuts

Dipping Sauce:

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup honey

2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. Sriracha

1 tsp. sesame oil

Random toppings: shredded carrots, bean sprouts, chopped cilantro, chopped parsley, more green onions, radish, pickled radish

(if you want to make lettuce cups, you will need bibb lettuce, washed and dried)

INSTRUCTIONS!!

In a large pan cook the pork, onion and pepper on medium heat until the pork is no longer pink. Stir often to break up the pork. (I like my pork a little crispy so I turn up the heat!)

Add the garlic and ginger, cook for 1 minute. Add soy sauce, vinegar, oil, peanut butter (or honey), water and Sriracha. Stir to combine.

Add GREEN onion and water chestnuts into the pan and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until the onions are soft and the water chestnuts are heated through.

In a small bowl (I use a jar so I can shake it up! It also stores well.), combine sauce ingredients, whisk well.

To serve...do what you want! If you want to do lettuce cups, then rock it! I was thinking about making some wonton taco shells and filling those. Top with whatever you like. Maybe a fried egg? It is good with pineapple as well. 

Try some things and let me know what you think is delicious.

(A special thanks to Salami and Prosciutto...without them this meal would not have been so delicious.)

Maple syrup and cough drops

It is "winter". It is time to tap those maple trees and make some syrup. I can't even begin to tell you how crazy excited I was to try making maple syrup this year. I really, really, really, really want to live off of the land as much a possible, so this just seemed like the natural thing to do.

First of all, Sugar Maple trees are not native to this area. Years ago, someone must have planted them on our property, so we are lucky to have a few trees. As soon as the weather was 'just right' I made Kyle tap those trees. Who knew collecting sap was so easy? We have been emptying these sap jars like crazy! Obviously, the sap flow has a ton to do with weather conditions. It has to be below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. 

Sap, sap, sap. It is so easy. That's where the ease of syrup ends. You literally have to boil the sap ALL DAY LONG. All day. No joke. It is really horrible. I don't even like maple syrup. Our first syrup experience wasn't that great. We had 6 gallons of syrup and got less than a half pint of syrup. I am pretty sure we are doing something wrong. You have to boil all of the water out of the sap, and once it gets to syrup it should boil at 219 degrees. Some people say 220 is the sweet spot. I haven't figured it out. How long are you supposed to boil it? Too short and the syrup is runny. Too short and the syrup has weird sugar crystals in it. And then straining the syrup...oy! How do you strain syrup?!?

I have to say the only thing I have liked about this experience is that it is something Kyle and I do together. Yeah, we stayed up until 2 am both times, but we worked together and it was fun. I totally don't want to make any more syrup, but we tapped the trees and I am going to see this through. I realize they are trees, but I want to respect their "sacrifice". (I am not a hippy.)

I have no pictures of our completed syrup because I am embarrassed by it. One jar has nasty crystals in it and one is like brown water. *sigh*

Because it is winter, it is also the time for colds. My boys are super duper picky about what they use as cold remedies. I am picky, too. I don't want to pump them full of crap. I usually buy the all natural stuff...and then I realized I could probably make this same stuff myself. So I went Pinterest crazy. I found an awesome recipe for cough drops and a Vapor Rub recipe. Cooper LOVES the vapor rub. Find the recipe here. It was so easy and I don't know if it works, but he thinks it does. The cough drops are awesome. And they were so so so so so easy. You boil a cup of honey to 300 degrees and add some lemon and eucalyptus essential oils. (Stir the honey a ton, it can burn.) Then you drop the honey mix on some parchment paper in "drops" and let the stuff cool. That. Is. It! 

Looking back at this post, I really don't know what cough drops and maple syrup have to do with one another...

Pork sliders on scallion pancakes with Sriracha coleslaw

I just made the best dinner ever. Ever. Asian food and I don't have a great relationship, but this was Asian food done my way, so it worked out well.

I am not going to lie, this was a little complicated, give yourself some time to get this done or enlist help. There were several parts to this: the pork sliders, the scallion pancakes, homemade Sriracha aioli, coleslaw.

Let's start with the scallion pancakes. I got the recipe off of pinterest. It was relatively easy, BUT, I refuse to knead stuff. That's what the KitchenAid is for.

You can find the recipe here: Zesty South Indian Kitchen. You'll need flour, water, scallions, oil and a frying pan. Really, that's it. I didn't make the dipping sauce because I wanted coleslaw. Pork needs coleslaw. I think it is a law. Here's the dough before I rolled it up...

Here is my suggestion, let this dough rest while you are doing everything else. Then, when you are ready to cook the sliders, fry the pancakes. You can keep these warm in the oven, they don't get soggy or anything.

For the Sriracha coleslaw, you need to make the aioli and cut up the veggies. We used cabbage, carrots, and red onions. You can use whatever you want, but those worked out pretty well. Slice those up nice and thin, throw them in a bowl, and get ready to make your aioli.

For the aioli (fancy mayo) you can use a blender or food processor. I used a blender. 

2 egg yolks

2 t dijon mustard

2 T lemon juice

2 t cold water

1 c olive oil

salt

Sriracha

(OR YOU COULD JUST ADD SRIRACHA TO MAYO)

Put the first four ingredients in the blender. Pulse to combine. Turn the blender/processor on low and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Stir until combined. (It will be whitish and fluffy.) Add salt, pulse again. Fold in as much Sriracha as you like. We put in some gochujang for a little extra kick. 

Dump this aioli on the sliced veggies, add a splash of rice wine or white wine vinegar, stir, and you are pretty much done. I put the coleslaw in the fridge to "meld" a little bit. 

OK, the pork sliders. These are easy! Combine ground pork, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, a little ginger (we added more gochujang...you can use red pepper if you like spice!). Make them into lovely little sliders and Cook. Them. Up.

I had two pans going at the same time, one for the sliders, one for the pancakes. Obviously the sliders took a little more time. Make them small so they cook quick and thoroughly.

**sidebar, I steamed the sliders for a little bit in the oven. I threw some lemongrass in with them and steamed them. I don't know if it made a huge difference.**

Serve how you like...you can make a sandwich. We made an open faced thing. Pancake on the bottom, slider next, topped with coleslaw. 

It seems like a lot of work. It is, but not hard work. Try it once and you will be a rock star in the eyes of your family. Then you can figure out what you can make ahead of time, or whatever for next time.

I think this is going on the menu of my food truck. 

Epic Cheese Fail

You all know that I am experimenting with raw milk. I am totally enthralled with raw milk. You can use every part of it. You can use it when it "spoils". (Note, it doesn't spoil. It sours. How great is nature? Why do we buy milk at the store?)

I decided I would start with something easy. Apparently making cream cheese is like the easiest thing. Well...

I let the milk sit out for a day. It got thick, like yogurt in water. Then I dumped the milk goo into a strainer lined with a towel. I need to buy cheesecloth.

Doesn't that look super appetizing? Here's something interesting...I let this milk just sit on the counter for a day. Then I let this gross looking slop sit on the counter for hours. It didn't smell. Ok, it smelled a little, but more like little boy feet. (Which is a smell I have in my house frequently.)

Here is where I went wrong...

You are supposed to just let this drain. You can hang it and let it drain.

Don't you like my fancy setup? Anyhow, I squeezed all of the liquid out of this. I shouldn't have. To make cream cheese you need some liquid left. Whoops.

I got a lovely, crumbly farmer's cheese. Not cream cheese. I even tried this a second time, with about the same results. I think I need to let it sit out for just a few hours.

Next time I will try the cream cheese again. For now we are just going to munch on the cheese we have sitting in the fridge.

Here is what is even more cool about the raw milk: the whey. You can do about 100 things with whey. We are going to give it to the chickens. I am not quite ready to try lacto-fermentation. I may in the future. You can also use it to make more cheese. Can you believe it? You can use it to make ricotta cheese. You just let it sit out and get all fermenty and then you cook it or something.

I think my adventures in raw milk are over for now. Until I get some more from that adorable Amish lady...or until Kyle buys me a cow.

A tale of two sloppy joes.

Someone messaged me today asking for a recipe or two. Can I tell you, it made my day? I have heard about this love language thing, and my love language is food. No question. I love food, I love cooking, I love eating (if it is good...or if it is mediocre and I don't cook...or anything my Grandma Dahl makes).

Let me tell you something about Kyle. He also loves food. He says he loves good food, but that is debatable. I have seen him eat three of the crappiest prime rib slabs in one sitting. He loves Swiss Steak, and his mom has a recipe, but it has ketchup in it. Ketchup! (Nothing against my MIL, I LOVE HER!) I thought I would make Swiss Steak good. Fresh ingredients, better steak...Kyle hated it. He wanted the ketchup steak. Blah.

I kept my weird husband in mind the other day and made some sloppy joes. I found a good recipe on pinterest and messed with it a bit. I made a pound of gourmet joes and a pound of crappy, regular sloppy joes straight from the store-bought mix. I was totally ready for the man to complain and not eat the good stuff.

 

Here's the kicker...He loved the good stuff.

 

 

Since Picky McGee liked the gourmet joes, I thought I would share the recipe.  *A dear friend of mine mentioned the other day that she doesn't have a lot of the stuff I mention in my recipes. I will offer alternatives. Yeah, you know who you are.*

 

 

This probably took 30 minutes, start to finish using fresh beef, probably a little longer if you use frozen.

 

Here's what you are going to need:

 

2 pounds ground beef

2 T olive oil

1 C diced onion

1/2 C finely diced green pepper (I used Anaheim pepper)

1/2 C shredded carrot (use a small holed shredder if you can)

1/2 C finely minced celery

2 finely minced garlic cloves

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1/3 C brown suger

1/2 T brown mustard

2 T balsamic vinegar (I used cherry balsamic and it was so good)

***you can substitute Worcestershire sauce, or add some extra**

1 C Campbell's Tomato and Chipotle soup (Or one 14 oz can of pureed tomatoes, I recommend the soup)

2 T smoked paprika (any kind is ok, but I only use Pride of Szeged. Find some)

2 t chili powder

1/2 t oregano

2 t salt

1/4 t smoked black pepper (you can use regular)

 

water

bread for serving

 

Brown the meat! Remove the meat from the heat and drain the liquid and fat. Let the fat rise to the top and save about one tablespoon of the fat and all of the liquid for later use.

 

(I like to use two pans when cooking, you don't have to. You can sauté the veggies while you cook the meat, or use the same pan once you remove the meat.)

 

Over medium heat, add olive oil to a pan and cook the onions, carrots, and celery for four minutes. SALT YOUR VEGGIES! Add garlic and sauté for one more minute. Add tomato paste and cook one more minute.

 

Add remaining ingredients, including cooked beef, reserved liquid and fat. Stir to combine.

 

Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Add more water if necessary.

 

Seriously, though, stir. The sugar content in this recipe is crazy...it will burn and be gross.

 

I am not going to lie, this is a sweet recipe. Kyle added a ton of Texas Pete's to his sandwich, I would recommend the same. But he puts that crap on everything.

 

Do try this. I am really a fan of making everything from scratch. I used all good ingredients...with the exception of the tomato soup. I was about to open a can of tomatoes from last year's garden and I saw that sitting in the pantry and it just called to me. Don't use beef that is too lean, you will have chewy, gross sandwiches.

 

Fall means sloppy joes. You need to make these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Clabbering

Clabbering!

This is my next adventure with the raw milk. Raw milk. It is still creeping me out just a little. I hate milk, so this is just super cow juice in my mind. Ew. The boys like it and it makes great butter, so I am approaching this next step in the milk process with excitement (and trepidation...)

So, I am clabbering the milk. This is basically the process of leaving the milk on the counter. That's it.

Why clabber milk? For one thing, I don't like to waste stuff. You can use every part of the raw milk and even use it when it has soured. Seriously. Raw milk doesn't got bad, it just changes form. (Sounds like energy, huh? Maybe there is a reason raw milk is just so good for you.)

I put the milk on the counter and now I'm waiting for it to sour. After about a day, it should be ready to turn into cream cheese and whey. I am not sure about it, but I am giving it a shot.

Fall. *sigh*

Fall is my favorite season. Weeeeelllll....used to be my favorite season.

Fall was my favorite season when I could drive down the paved road, up my blacktopped driveway, pull into my garage, and take my shoes off before even entering the house. It was my favorite season when we lived in a neighborhood with very few trees. It was my favorite season when someone got paid to rake my leaves...

Now we live in the country. It is great. Really. Really, really great. We now have five (heavily wooded) acres. We live off a gravel road off a gravel road down a gravel driveway.

What does that mean? Dust. Dirt. Leaves. Mud. Ew.

Ok, it really isn't that bad. It really isn't. It isn't.

I still like fall. Like. Maybe if there were a coffee place nearby that served some hot apple cider I could be persuaded to love it again.

But Mums! That's right. Fall rocks. Oh, and fall food. I am going to be a cooking madwoman this fall. I can't wait to share some recipes on here.

Adventures with raw milk

I want to get a cow. I don't want to rely on The Man for my milk needs. (Ha. Ew.) You know what I mean.

Would there be anything more satisfying than milking a cow and making your own butter, cream, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk...? I think not.

So we bought a gallon of raw milk the other day from the cutest Amish lady. I'm not going to lie, I am a little nervous about it. I made Kyle try it first. He hasn't died yet.

I left the milk in the fridge so the milk and cream could separate. I am obviously a pro at making my own butter so I thought the butter making would be exactly the same. WRONG.

So wrong.

When you buy the cream from the store all you have to do is whip it good. That is not the case with raw cream. Who knew? Probably the internet, but I don't check those things.

Luckily, I salvaged some of the butter, but it wasn't much. A quart of store bought cream will make a pound of butter. This made about a pat. Maybe more, I'm not good with measuring things.

Kyle decided this butter needed to be a little fancy. Here it is as we are smushing the buttermilk out of it. We added hickory smoked salt.

Then we got some rosemary from the front yard and smushed it some more. Here is the finished product. Not as exciting as I thought it would be. 

I think I should have put a quarter by it for reference. 

Was this adventure in raw milk worth it? I don't know. But I did use some of the milk to make cream of chicken soup, and that was good. 

Risotto. Is there anything more delicious?

In case you had no clue, I love risotto.

Let me clarify...I love good risotto.

I recently went to a "fancy" restaurant near where we live and ordered a lovely risotto. For $18 I got a bowl of crunchy rice that desperately needed salt. No.

Risotto isn't that difficult to make, I don't know why everyone hasn't mastered this process.

Tonight I made some risotto with dinner. We got some (really good) gruyere and roasted garlic sausages, so I figured it made sense.

I don't really follow a recipe, and I would recommend you do the same. I think things turn out better that way. (Maybe not baking, but everything else.)

Here's the basic risotto idea...

You NEED a wooden spoon and a nice, heavy stainless steel pan. It will work if you use Teflon, but ew.

Melt some butter and olive oil together, cook any veggies you like first. I love to use shallot, garlic (shaved) and shiitake mushrooms. *sidebar, this batch had mushrooms on the side for picky Logan, that is why they are not in the picture. I made a heavenly mushroom and wine sauce. So. Good.*

Deglaze the pan with white wine. Use as much as you want. I like to cook with wine. If you don't, use chicken broth.

Throw in some rice. You can use any rice, but I really recommend Arborio, it has more starch.

Stir the rice with the little bit of wine that may be in there, getting all the delicious bits from the pan.

Now you just add liquid and stir. That is it. I alternate with chicken broth and wine. (Today I totally cheated and used Swanson's Tuscan Chicken broth. It was really good.)

Stir, add broth, stir, add broth, stir. Once the rice gets creamy, it is done.

I usually stir in a stinky cheese or the cute little balls of mozzarella. Season with some salt and maybe garlic and onion? That is your choice. I usually throw in some marjoram. Top with parsley and olive oil and it is done.

I don't think risotto is complete without mushrooms, but that is up to you. You can really put in any veggies you like.

Here is tonight's delicious creation. I should have taken a picture of the sauce on the rice, but I was lazy.

Try it. You can make risotto.

Why do people live in the city?

I grew up in the suburbs. I spent every minute I could in the city. I would go to Woodfield Mall between classes in nursing school. Yeah.

Then I married Kyle. He is so anti-city. So. Much. Hatred toward "city life". I hate to say he is starting to rub off on me. There. I admitted it.

I really really really miss good places to eat. However, on our last trip up to Chicago, it took FOUR hours to drive 65 miles. No kidding. We used to live in a townhouse in Lakemoor, which is pretty much Wisconsin, and we didn't even know our neighbors. We shared a wall and I didn't know their names.

Now we live in the country. Maybe it is just Missouri, but the people here are super cool. Ok, maybe not "cool", but nice. Really nice. Bring cookies to your front door nice.

Or like today, bring a tire swing to your front door nice.

Yep, that's a tire swing. (Oh yeah, that is tile for my shower behind the tire. That's another story...)

Our other neighbor brought us 100 pounds of apples and a beehive. 

There are days when country life isn't so bad. They are starting to be every day. 

Why pay for something when you can do it yourself?

This is a concept that was incredibly foreign to me when Kyle and I got married. My family isn't what you'd call "handy". Sure, my mom is super crafty, but that is not quite the same. Kyle is incredibly handy. Like ridiculously so.

I have tried, over the years, to embrace this crazy idea. It has led to some...interesting...outcomes. How about that time I dyed my hair and my face was blue for a few days? (Yeah, that was recently, I'm still learning.) Or that one time Kyle thought he could be a plumber?

Anyhow, this 'do-it-yourself' way of living seems to be incredibly necessary if you want to build a homestead. Here are a few of our DIY adventures, proving that you, too, can do it yourself.

 So this is Logan's room. Cost? Paint. I could have hired a mural painter...but ohmygoodness the price. Yeah, it took forever. But can't you just see the love poured into every detail? Or maybe that's loathing. (Remember, it took forever.)

 Here's a big one, the house. Oh. Man. This project started February 11th and is still dragging on. This one is a little more expensive, but everything has been done by our hands. Well, some unsuspecting friends and family, too. I grouted. No joke. Me. I couldn't make Jello a few years ago. (maybe I still can't, I haven't tried lately.) Even the boys helped. You gotta train them early.

 Another HUGE DIY is canning. Holy smokes. This is a pain. Like a horrible pain in the neck. The work...ugh. But you know what? Eating fresh tomatoes in December is worth every annoying minute. Eating pickles that aren't laced with nasty crap? Priceless. I learned using the Ball Canning Book, you can learn, too. Try it. Do you have a garden? Learn to can!

I think the point of all of this is that doing things yourself can (obviously) save you a ton of money. IF you know what you are doing. Or if it is something that, when you mess up, will not cost a ton of money to fix. Start small. What can you do yourself? If I can do this stuff, anyone can. (Remember the Jello?)

I just ate store bought butter, and it was gross.

So I just ate butter bought at our local grocery store. It was nasty. It tastes like chemicals. When did I get so darn picky? When I started making my own butter. Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I tried it and I will never go back. I must get the vile crap out of my fridge.

Do you want to learn how to make butter? YOU CAN do it. If I can, you can. Here's what you should do:

Get some heavy whipping cream. Get some salt. Get a KitchenAid stand mixer. (Ok, not necessarily that last one, but it makes life so much easier.)

Put the whipping cream in the bowl, add a pinch of salt, start the mixer on high speed and you are pretty much done.

For real, though, it is easy. I like to start my mixer on medium and I wrap the whole blessed thing in a kitchen towel because it is a little messy. Once it gets to about whipped cream consistency, I crank up the speed.

A few things to keep in mind, toward the end of the process, the butter and buttermilk separate. This is where you can end up with buttermilk all over your kitchen. Keep an eye on it.

Once your butter is "done", you need to rinse it well. If you leave buttermilk in the butter it will go bad very quickly. I like to put the butter in a bowl and squeeze it. Then I rinse it with cold water several times, squeezing the rest of the buttermilk out. Of course, save the buttermilk. It makes great ranch dressing, marinade for fried chicken, pancake batter...the list goes on.

I sometimes make the butter into a cute little rectangle, sometimes I just leave it in a ball. Do what you want. I recommend wrapping it in parchment paper instead of wrapping it in plastic or putting it in a plastic bag. It just breathes better. I have tried smoked salt, but it didn't seem to make too much of a difference. Also, if you don't add salt, it makes very sweet butter.

Try it. You will never eat store bought butter again. (And also, it is cheaper. Butter is about $4/lb here, I can make a pound of butter and get a a pint of buttermilk for less than $4.)

It's been a long time...

Wow, it has been awhile since I posted on here. A lot has happened since last year...we moved, Kyle started a window-tinting branch in Missouri (need your windows tinted? midmissouriwindowtinting.com) I broke my back (ew), and we decided to try to make our little slice of heaven as self-sustaining as possible.

Ha. That is a little more difficult than I thought it would be.

If any of you know me, the country life isn't really my style. I used to walk around in Louis Vuitton shoes. Now I wear Justin boots.

 

 

The thing about being self-sustaining is it takes a lot of work and A LOT of money to get there. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if we hadn't bought the world's dumpiest house. Poor Kyle has had to rebuild the thing from the studs. No joke. Then the front of the house fell down, the roof leaked...and the list does go on. The budget grew from $15,000 to $40,000. This stay at home mommy had to get a job, and it isn't fun. Boo.

 

 

 

So the plan is chickens (we do have 10), pigs, a cow, a huge garden, outdoor kitchen, and eco pool. We'd like to find a way to heat without relying on gas. We were thinking of running solar power, but electricity is SO CHEAP here. That will probably be last on our list.

 

I still cook everything from scratch and love to can...I just have a little less time. I still homeschool Logan, but the house is a little more dirty. I blame it on the country living.

 

Hopefully I can post some interesting recipes and ideas. I am going to post our homesteading journey, it is just going to be a longer journey than originally expected. If any of you out there are homesteading pros, I would love some input.

 





There's something about Romas

I am in love with Roma tomatoes. I am also in love with San Marzanos, but I don't think I will be planting those lovely babies again any time soon.
Romas are plentiful, delicious, easy to grow, and cheap (if you don't have a garden).
Making sauce out of these is wonderful. They are nice and paste-y so they don't require much reducing.

Here's what I do for fabulous sauce that rivals Mama Ragu's:

Wash and slice the tops off as many tomatoes as you want. Cut them in half, throw them in a big pot. Season with about 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence, one green pepper, a quarter onion and three garlic cloves. Cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Once everything is soft, process it all through a food mill. Put it back in the pot and reduce to the consistency you like. I reduce it about 1/3rd.

Taste and tweak if necessary. You can serve this right away or can it for later use. There is nothing like fresh sauce.

Love. Roma. Tomatoes.

Brine your meat!

This isn't really a recipe...more of a suggestion. Brine. Your. Meat.

We have a wood burning grill, so brining is essential. It gives better flavor, but there is not much of a science to it. The heat fluctuates and sometimes it leads to dry meat. Brining solves that. You can brine anything! Sausages? Pork? Turkey? Chicken? Beef? Venison? Yes!!

Basic brine is a quart of water, and equal parts sugar and salt, at least 1/4 cup. Mix it together until dissolved, throw in the meat, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

You can obviously change this up. I like to use brown sugar and add cherry balsamic vinegar to pork. I add bay leaves and carrots and onion to turkey. Hot sauce to beef. Do the extras make a difference? I would like to think so.

Once done brining, rinse and pat dry the meat. Season normally and grill, broil or bake. You will never eat unbrined meat again.

Banana Jam

Jam is pretty simple. It is just sugar, water, fruit and spices of some sort. Kyle likes banana bread, but shouldn't eat it, so I thought I could make jam that tastes like banana bread!

You will need:

5 ripe bananas
Lime juice
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves...whatever you like! I just used cinnamon, about 1 Tablespoon

Chop the bananas, sprinkle with lime juice to keep them from browning too much. Boil the sugar and water, add the bananas, stirring constantly. You will want to smash the bananas as you stir. Add the brown spice(s) of your choice as you stir. This jam is done when you drag a metal spoon across the bottom of the pan and it leaves a path in the jam.

You can can this or refrigerate it. This made about 1 1/3 pints. I canned it for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

This is good with peanut butter. Slice a donut in half and make a sandwich with this and some peanut butter.

Roasted Roma (and San Marzano) tomatoes

These are delicious. I stumbled on this recipe last year and Oh. My. Goodness. I planted a ton of Romas this year just to make this "sauce". I decided to add San Marzano tomatoes to this recipe, but you don't have to!

I always can this recipe. I have never served it fresh. If you are going to can these lovelies, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice before canning and 1-2 Tablespoons brown sugar BEFORE SERVING.

You will need:
As many Roma tomatoes as you like
Salt
Pepper
Diced onion (about 1/4 amount of tomatoes)
4-8 cloves of garlic
Italian seasoning

Lemon juice for canning
Brown sugar for serving

This is pretty simple! Turn on your broiler and while it is warming up, get your tomatoes ready. Slice off the top and core them. This makes it much easier to seed them later. Place the tomatoes on a sheet along with the garlic (as much as you like) and put them in the oven under the broiler. Broil until the skins are brown and bubbly.

Remove from the sheet and put tomatoes and garlic in a paper bag until they cool enough to handle. About 15 minutes.

Remove skins from tomatoes once cool. Slice and seed tomatoes. Remove garlic from papery skins. Combine all ingredients in a pan; tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to your liking. Heat to boiling.

If you are going to can this, do it now. Add the lemon juice and process for 1 hr 25 min in a boiling water canner. To serve from canned, warm over medium heat, smush tomatoes and add at least 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar.

To serve fresh, just smush the tomatoes and add the brown sugar.

This stuff is like crack. I use it all the time. It works with beef and chicken. It is good without meat.

Try it and you will never buy canned sauce. Ever.

Carrot Cake Jam

This is the life of a stay-at-home mom: "The laundry is done, the floors are clean (for now), one kid is outside and one is napping, what should I do? Hmmm...make jam!"
Let me be clear, I do not like jam and I do not like Carrot Cake. Not one bit. But my husband does, so he benefits from my strange cooking binges. Even with my aversion to both parts of this concoction, I must admit it is pretty darn good. Spread this on a bagel with cream cheese and you will be glad you did.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1 1/2 cups peeled, sliced pears
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple with juice
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon powdered clove
1 pkg. pectin
6 1/2 cups sugar

**If you want to can this jam, start warming the jars now! See below for more info.

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan, simmer for about 15 minutes until the pears are soft. Stir if you are worried about anything sticking.

Remove from heat, stir in pectin. Bring to a boil, add sugar. Stir, bring to a rolling boil for one minute. At this point the jam is done. It is up to you if you want to can this or refrigerate this. This will make about 7 or 8 half pints.

**Canning jam is easy. If you have never canned before, this is a good place to start. Wash jars. Put just jars in canner, cover with water, start it boiling!**

Place lids in a bowl or pan with hot, not boiling, water until ready. OK...now your jelly is done and your jars are warm. Fill them up! One at a time, of course. Remove one jar from the canner, fill it almost to the top, wipe the lip, put the lid on, and tighten a band around it. Put it back in the water bath and repeat until you are out of jam. Make sure your canner water is boiling, and if it is, you are ready to go! Cover and process for 10 minutes.

When the jars are done, let them cool for awhile and you can check if they are 'done' by seeing if the tops pop. If they do, then your canning didn't stick and you will have to refrigerate the unsealed jars.

You can find some variations of this on line, have you tried different ingredients?